Moving to Montreal and would love to hear comments re: schools and neighborhoods. Not allergy related, just opinions. English schools needed. Westmount? Beaconsfield, Baie d'Urfe? Will have a 4th and 7th grader. Husband's job is downtown Montreal. North of Westmount.

First question: are you sure your kids qualify for English school? Not everyone can go. My kids can't.

Second: what are your criteria for a house? big yard? neighbourhood with plenty of kids? Or night life? Do you stay outdoors a lot ? (some areas are under the airplanes path when they land. Not good for a bbq in the summer!)

Well, we are not sure what our status is for living there. Corporate life being what it is we are waiting for some information. Being US citizens whose kids have only ever been educated in English schools HOPEFULLY will fulfill some requirement! Truth is we just got the news that we are probably moving there, so I am researching things, but haven't gotten into specifics. I have figured out the two schools thing. Do you have to go to your postal code area public school? Assuming we can go to an English school (I am nothing if not optimistic), any thoughts on schools or neighborhoods? Did your kids assimilate right away? Were they born there? Are you Canadian?

Being US citizens whose kids have only ever been educated in English schools HOPEFULLY will fulfill some requirement!
Laurie

Actually, those criteria will ensure your kids will attend *French* school. It will depend on the type of work visa your husband will get. I'm not clear on the exact terms of the law. It is full of legal technicalities, and each case is different. But the gist of it is that each child immigrating to Quebec for a certain length of time should go to French school.

As for us, we're French Canadians. Our kids are forbidden to go to an English school. Kinda silly, but that's the law.

Do you have to go to your postal code area public school? Assuming we can go to an English school (I am nothing if not optimistic), any thoughts on schools or neighborhoods?

You don't get your pick of local schools, no. You have to go to the neighbourhood one, whether English or French. Sometimes, neighbourhoods are cut in a weird way. There's a high school within biking distance of where we live, but our kids would be going to one much farther away, and will need to be bussed there. Mainly for historical reasons. The nearer school was only built for the new developments, old developments still go to the old school. But then again, we homeschool so we don't care

Westmount is the rich part of town. It's basically "up-town". Old houses, manors in fact. Old money.
Baie d'Urfée - even though it has a French name - is very English too. Again, rich part of town.
Pierrefonds is very new, new houses, some on small lots, some on large lots. New money, with the good and bad that comes with it. Pierrefonds is a part of the city of Montreal, Westmount and Baie d'Urfée aren't. They're little independent towns. A resident of Pierrefonds would pay the resident fee when going out to museums, or any attraction in Montreal. The others would pay a higher fee. This may or may not impact your choice, depending on your lifestyle. And anyway, we're not talking hundreds of $ per year, just the extra nagging that you're a second class citizen each time you go out.

Thanks for the information. Montreal sounds like an interesting place. We moved to England for four years but my kids were babies at the time. We had time to learn about the schools there. And English wasn't an issue.

Well, technically, we are not immigrating. It is a work assignment. Well, clearly I must call some official ed. boards and find out the facts based on my situation.

West Island appeals to me. Price-wise, space-wise and all. We live in a small, fixer outside of NYC and I am tired of bumping into my 9 and 11 year old sons in the halllway. Westmount sounds like more the the same, in our price range.

I think (but Cleo will know more as a resident) if your family is only posted in Montreal for a period of time that you may qualify for English schools. The gov't policies aim to have full-fledged immigrants educate their children in French as that's the dominant language (and they'd like to keep it that way).

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